Dinner and a Show
by Masquerading as Quality
Summary: Princess Aurora invites Maleficent out for dinner at the House of Mouse. [Prompt response, modernish Magic Kingdom AU thing, eventual femmeslash]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Since my writing and my life have been all over the place, I asked for random prompts on Tumblr. This is a response to one of those prompts, requesting that Maleficent and Aurora have a night out together at the House of Mouse. It will be relatively short and as light-hearted as I get. Feedback would be much appreciated! Enjoy!

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In the center of the Magic Kingdom stood a glorious castle. It was home to many royal families from many different worlds, all of whom had agreed to come to this kingdom to be free from a variety of dangers, widespread or personal. It was also home to a few non-royal persons, and even a few persons who were not strictly human. While some people questioned the presence of these creatures in what was meant to be their sanctuary, they were sternly reminded that this was a safe haven for all, regardless of who they were, from whence they hailed, and yes-even their past misdeeds.

Around high noon, in the topmost tower of the castle, a telephone began to ring. It rang once...twice...a third time before the tower's resident even deigned to acknowledge that it had made any sound at all.

Maleficent looked up from her book and turned with superhuman slowness to award the telephone a menacing glower. The phone, blithely unaware of the hatred it engendered, rang a fourth and fifth time under its mistress's fearsome gaze.

Still with an eerie serenity belying the rage that boiled within her veins, Maleficent stood and walked languourously over to where the telephone sat. When the abnormally large mouse who was now her landlord had insisted every denizen of the Magic Kingdom have a telephone installed, Maleficent (following multitudinous and borderline violent protests) had chosen the least offensive place a telephone could sit, which was to say, out of her sight.

The telephone rang a sixth time, then a seventh. Whoever was calling was dreadfully persistent, or perhaps aware enough of Maleficent's distaste for the telephone not to be deterred by the waiting time.

On the ninth ring, Maleficent picked up the offending device and relished the instant of silence left in the wake of its infernal ringing. "You must have a great deal of time on your hands," she informed her caller coldly.

"You could say that," replied a voice Maleficent had hoped to avoid hearing for the rest of eternity.

"Princess Aurora," Maleficent barely suppressed a heavy sigh. "To what do I owe this disruption?"

"Oh. Well. This might sound a little crazy."

The sigh Maleficent had previously suppressed made itself known. "Go on."

"I wanted to ask you to go to dinner with me."

Were Maleficent another person, she would have laughed aloud. As it stood, she glowered furiously at _nothing_-and this was the thing she despised most about talking on the telephone! "Please tell me I've misheard you."

"Okay, I know, I know, but hear me out? There's this huge party tonight, and everyone will be there, and everyone will be there _with_ someone..."

Maleficent cut her off. "I can think of an imbecilic prince and three simpering fairies who would be overjoyed to accompany you."

"My aunties might go for a time, of course, but they're like parents to me. And Philip...well, we're not exactly on dinner-eating terms since I asked to postpone the wedding again."

_And we are on such terms?_ Maleficent pressed the tips of her fingers against her temple. "My condolences," she replied drily.

"Please?" Aurora continued, evidently unphased. "I just don't want to spend another evening as everyone's third wheel. Anyway, maybe you'll like it. Cindy said she's seen you at the House of Mouse dozens of times."

"The House of Mouse?" Maleficent echoed incredulously. But of course a large event would be held there. It was something of a local gathering spot for those who weren't born in this kingdom.

And it wasn't the place she minded, particularly, but rather, a significant portion of its clientele. In her land (and by extension, Princess Aurora's), Maleficent had been virtually immune to romantic overtures. The vast majority of the population found her revolting and had no trouble telling her so. Anyone who didn't would be hard-pressed to reach her. She had lived atop a foreboding mountain, far away from civilization, with no telephones to speak of.

But every time Maleficent took a meal at the House of Mouse, she fell prey to a relentless parade of idiot men from various worlds who seemed intent upon earning her favour. Their advances were not only unwelcome, but profoundly irritating.

"Isn't it true?" Aurora wondered.

"Why you think this is a compelling argument escapes me."

"Well," Aurora offered, and Maleficent sneered instinctively at the hopeful lilt in her voice, "you haven't hung up on me yet."

Maleficent's sneer intensified. "Touché."

And why was she considering this at all? Though it was true enough she'd never wanted to kill Aurora the person (as opposed to Aurora the concept), she also bore no especially positive feelings. All of their encounters in this new land had been surprisingly uneventful. If Aurora was any more frightened by or resentful toward Maleficent than the average person, she did not let on, nor did she adopt the strange, affected manner of those pretending bravery.

Indeed, Aurora was downright pleasant to Maleficent-far more so than many mortals who had no personal reason to be unpleasant. Without thinking very much on the matter, Maleficent had returned Aurora's pleasantries. Evidently this had been enough to earn her a dinner invitation.

It occurred to Maleficent that Aurora had always led a solitary existence, but she was surprised to learn that this loneliness had carried over past her stint as the charge of the three good fairies of Stefan's court. She had expected-again, without very much thought-that a beautiful and genuinely kind-hearted young maiden would easily find friends and admirers to fill her days, if she wished it. Therefore, that Aurora should request Maleficent's company, of all people, was at best perplexing.

Maleficent reconsidered this with a small shake of her head. At best, it was ever so slightly intriguing. And this was the reason Maleficent hadn't yet ended the conversation.

"So you are considering it?"

Then again, this could be a recipe for disaster. Maleficent suddenly felt slightly agitated. There was always the chance, however minute, that this innocuous phone call was part of some grand scheme to bring about her embarrassment and eventual downfall.

Well! If this simple peasant maid thought she could make a fool of Maleficent, she would soon see the error of her ways!

"Very well," Maleficent said at last. "What time shall this fiasco commence?"

"Oh, how wonderful!" Aurora cried, and the genuine happiness in her voice caused Maleficent's knuckles to whiten around the phone. "Thank you! Oh, thank you! You'll have a good time, I promise! I'll make sure of it!"

"You haven't answered my question," Maleficent snarled through clenched teeth.

Aurora remained utterly and infuriatingly unconcerned by the vitriol in Maleficent's tone. "Right! Of course! Six-thirty! Thank y-"

Maleficent slammed the telephone back onto the receiver.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you all so much for your enthusiastic response! This is proving really fun to write, and I hope you will continue to enjoy and to share your thoughts!

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"What?!"

"Rose, dear, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

The last of her three fairy aunts' reactions, which belonged to Meryweather, was a thought which had admittedly run its course in Aurora's own mind a few times over the past five hours. She imagined she must be at least a little bit mad to even think of calling up her would-be murderer and asking her to dinner. Perhaps she'd gone off the deep end entirely when Maleficent had miraculously agreed, and Aurora had been positively giddy with excitement.

The truth was that Aurora could more than likely have found someone else to ask to dinner. This land was so packed full of new citizens from far and wide that it would be foolish of her to think she'd thought of them all. Why, there was a whole club dedicated to singles...not that Aurora was single exactly.

But Aurora had been raised in near-utter solitude, and to be perfectly honest, meeting new people still made her profoundly nervous. And who was to say that anyone interesting was a member of the singles club? Maleficent, for example, was ostensibly as single as they came, and she was not a member of any clubs at all.

Aurora wondered briefly whether Maleficent truly enjoyed her extreme solitude, or whether perhaps meeting new people made her ever so slightly nervous, as well. Of course, that was absurd. If there was anything that made Maleficent nervous, Aurora should hope never to encounter it, herself.

"Come now, Aunties," said Aurora as she ran a comb through her hair for the third or fourth time, "The Magic Kingdom is meant to be a safe haven for all, isn't it?"

Her aunties exchanged uncomfortable glances. Fauna might be physically incapable of speaking ill of anyone, but Flora and Merryweather had received their fair share of official reprimands for speaking unkind words against former evildoers.

"Even so, Rosie," Merryweather spoke up after a moment's silence, "that doesn't mean you ought to go around courting danger."

"Maleficent has been perfectly civil to me," Aurora told her truthfully, but she did not feel quite as flippant about it as she tried to sound. "Pleasant, even."

Aurora remembered nothing about the first time she had met Maleficent. Sometimes she dreamt about the incident, but she couldn't be certain whether these dreams contained bits of the memories she'd lost, or whether she was merely creating suppositions of what being hypnotized by Maleficent might be like.

She never saw Maleficent's face in the dreams—even when Maleficent towered over her, not hidden away in the shadows, her face was itself a shadow. All Aurora could make out were the distinctive outline of horns and the glowing yellow eyes of a beast.

One day, as she wandered aimlessly through the central marketplace in the Magic Kingdom with a basketful of fruit, Aurora had seen that familiar formation, which belonged to an ornate horned headdress and an extremely tall woman clad in flowing robes. Aurora had felt a surge of terror, but made up her mind to go on about her business, as she was sure Maleficent was doing.

As she passed, however, Maleficent turned around—a fair bit more sharply than any human ever turned around—and their eyes locked. Aurora was surprised to see that Maleficent's eyes, while they were strikingly dark in colour, were otherwise perfectly normal and not the eyes of a beast at all.

"Good afternoon, Mistress Maleficent," she said with a small curtsey.

Maleficent's dramatic features remained perfectly impassive, and Aurora found that when she was not depicted with a fearsome scowl, as she always was in books, Maleficent was extremely beautiful. "Good afternoon," she replied. Her voice was low and resonant, and it sent chills down Aurora's spine, but she spoke very quietly and evenly.

Neither of them had moved or broken eye contact, and Aurora felt bizarrely compelled to extend the interaction. "It's a lovely marketplace, isn't it?" Not long before she'd fled to the Magic Kingdom, the marketplace of Aurora's kingdom had become not only empty, but dangerous.

"A bit crowded for my taste," said Maleficent. Aurora couldn't be certain whether the words were directed at her. Maleficent's tone remained unnervingly even, and each of them had yet to look away from one another.

"You could order online, I suppose," said Aurora. The words that were one word, 'on line,' stuck in her mouth. She wasn't particularly comfortable with all of the new technology available to her in this new land.

Maleficent inclined her head ever so slightly. "And then someone would deliver my groceries to my home. And I should like that level of interaction even less."

Something about this statement, spoken, she was certain, in earnest, caused Aurora to smile, and forced her to suppress a small but surprising giggle. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then," she said. "Good day." Feeling equally giddy and disquieted, Aurora left the marketplace as quickly as possible.

In the present, Flora's voice carried a grave sternness that made everyone take her words seriously. "Danger comes in many forms, Briar Rose."

Aurora turned away from the mirror to meet her eldest aunt's eyes. "What do you mean by that, Auntie?"

Flora's frown deepened. "Won't you reconsider this, Rose? Perhaps consider speaking to—"

"No," Aurora cut her off firmly. If Philip couldn't understand that Aurora needed time, not only to adjust to her new life as a princess, but now to this new land, as well, then that was his problem, not hers. "What could possibly go wrong, Aunt Flora?" She returned to brushing her hair, and again exerted monumental effort to sound flippant. "Half the kingdom will be there."

Another awkward silence indicated that her aunties were exchanging worried looks behind her back. "That's what worries us, dearie," said Fauna.

Before Aurora could ask any further questions, however, there came a knock at the door. The knock was firm and brisk, and even though it was only a hand knocking upon an ordinary wooden door, it managed somehow to sound solemn and foreboding.

Aurora stood and took one last look in the mirror. "No turning back now," she told her aunties lightly, and went to answer the door.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Two chapter in two days? I have no idea who I am anymore. Again, thank you all so much for your enthusiasm! I hope you will continue to enjoy and to share your thoughts!

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Aurora stood in front of the door for a full minute before she gathered the courage to open it. Since Maleficent had hung up on her, they hadn't made definitive plans regarding whether they would meet, or whether one would come and collect the other. So, Aurora wasn't exactly surprised that Maleficent had taken it upon herself to come to Aurora's door...perhaps she was simply taken aback that her mad plan was really coming to fruition at all.

Maleficent looked much the same as she always did (or rather, as she had in the handful of times Aurora had seen her): severe and regal, and decidedly not of this world. She, like Aurora, seemed uninterested in giving any of this world's fashion trends a whirl. Her style was actually a bit old-fashioned even for Aurora's land, and it occurred to Aurora for the first time that Maleficent must be a fair bit older than she was, if she'd already been an adult when Aurora was a newborn baby.

"Right on time," said Aurora with a tentative smile.

Maleficent arched one dramatic eyebrow. "I don't like to wait about."

Aurora grabbed her shawl and bag and gave Maleficent a nod. "Shall we?"

Walking through the streets of the Magic Kingdom with Maleficent, Aurora quickly noticed, was an entirely different matter than walking through the streets with anyone else, or even by herself. When Aurora went anywhere, she received a warm salutation from nearly everyone she passed, people she knew and people she could never possibly have met. Even people from this land inexplicably knew her and loved her, though they often called her by the less-than-agreeable nickname she'd hoped to shake, Sleeping Beauty.

The attention, while invariably very kind, always made Aurora ever so slightly uncomfortable, and sometimes completely overwhelmed her. She had on more than one occasion avoided going out on some simple errand because she did not feel up to being so very visible.

If Aurora had ever felt deluged with public scrutiny, she could not imagine how Maleficent must feel. People did not merely glance at Maleficent. The moment their eyes caught sight of one of her defining characteristics, they stared openly. Some whispered, some gasped, and others even shrieked. As Aurora passed them, she began to distinguish the words they used. Beast, fiend, and monster were among the kindest.

Aurora glanced up at Maleficent, whose expression remained impassive as ever. She lowered her gaze to her shoes and felt a troubled frown settling into her face.

"Are people always like this?" she wondered quietly, more to herself than to her silent companion. Many of these must logically be the very same people who greeted Aurora with such warmth and kindness day in and day out, mustn't they?

"Only when they're frightened," Maleficent replied.

Aurora looked up at her again. "I already sort of understood why someone would want to avoid people, but this is really awful."

Maleficent's chuckle surprised Aurora, and the sound of it sent uncomfortable chills down her spine. "There are things I mind far more in mortals than a bit of healthy trepidation."

"Like what?" Did Maleficent mean to say that people were worse to her than they were now, on the streets? Did she mean that this—which Aurora would not be able to bear if it were directed at her—was nothing? That it was _healthy?_

"I expect you shall see," said Maleficent after a moment's pause. "We've an entire evening together, after all."

As it turned out, Aurora didn't have to wait very long at all to see something worse than the fearful reactions of strangers.

Aurora and Maleficent approached the House of Mouse as one pair among at least a dozen others. Max, who watched the front of the house on big nights, maintained a relaxed disposition in all manner of situations. He mostly let incoming guests pass with a friendly nod, but whenever he saw Aurora, he felt inexplicably compelled to chat.

Not that Aurora minded, necessarily, but Max was just one in an endless line of people who bombarded her with talking whenever she wanted just a little time to herself.

"Princess Aurora! Hoped I'd see you here tonight! Where's—oh." His shoulders slumped and his eyes glazed over with unmistakable fear. He glanced nervously between Aurora and Maleficent several times before he continued. "Is Prince Phillip coming? Is he...I mean, uh..." Max leaned in toward Aurora and whispered, "Is she bothering you? Are you okay?"

While Aurora floundered for a response, Maleficent took to examining her fingernails. "She can hear you," she said crisply.

Max swallowed audibly. "Right. Uh. Well."

Aurora, still dumbfounded, looked up at Maleficent in hopes of some kind of guidance. Maleficent merely gestured that Aurora should lead the way inside.

The House of Mouse was a very large dinner theater which served many purposes, from casual to elegant. Tonight it erred in the side of formal, and the tables had been shuffled around to make room for more than half the kingdom.

"Ooh, hi there, Sleeping Beauty!" came the cheerful greeting of Daisy, the House's reservation clerk. "Are you meeting Prince Phillip this evening?"

Aurora had gracefully avoided openly wincing at the use of the dreaded sobriquet, but her composure only extended so far. "No," she said as evenly as she could manage, eyes still squeezed closed.

"Princess Aurora will be dining with me this evening," Maleficent mercifully supplied. The low, resonant quality of her voice took Aurora by surprise once more, and this took her mind off of the uncomfortable manner in which she'd been addressed.

"W-with...you?"

Aurora had never seen Daisy look so frightened. Hadn't Cindy been saying just the other day that she saw...well, she'd called them villains, though that wasn't really...but that she'd seen people of a...similar reputation...here all the time?

Daisy, not unlike Max before her, glanced frantically between Maleficent and Aurora, then focused her attention on the latter. "Is that true, Your Highness?"

The emotion that settled into Aurora's veins was not one she would have expected. Aurora felt indignant. Irritated. Why, she very nearly felt downright angry! "Yes," she told Daisy with a firm nod of her head. "That's true."

More darting eyes. Another audible swallow. "Right. Uh. Well."

After another interminable moment of stammering and unnecessarily shuffling papers around on her desk, Daisy flagged down a hostess (whom Aurora thankfully did not recognize) and sent them on their way.

"I thought you came here a lot," Aurora whispered to Maleficent, electing to ignore the idle chatter of the hostess.

"_A lot_ is certainly an overstatement," Maleficent replied.

Aurora noted that Maleficent's temperament had remained unchanged throughout the course of these infuriating interactions. Where was the fearsome, dangerous magical being who struck terror into the hearts of all who would oppose her? Where was the vengeful fairy who would place a tragic curse on an infant for no reason at all?

"So it's always like this?" Aurora pressed. "Doesn't it...I don't, know, upset you?" It occurred to her that perhaps she oughtn't to give Maleficent any ideas about getting upset, but Aurora had never been particularly good at letting sleeping dragons lie, or whatever that old expression was.

Maleficent gave a quiet huff of amusement. "If I allowed such trivial matters to upset me, can you imagine what kind of blood pressure I'd have?"

The hostess seated them and handed them menus. Aurora was vaguely aware that she had told or asked them something, but Aurora and Maleficent seemed to have agreed upon ignoring her entirely.

"Well, I suppose you're right, it's just that I've heard..."

"You've heard?" Suddenly Maleficent's black eyes focused full-force upon her, and Aurora could do nothing but to gaze back into them. "What exactly have you heard, _Princess_, that compelled you to invite me to dinner?"

Aurora did not stammer. She did not dare to glance away from those dark, searching eyes. Without really knowing at all, she knew somehow that the slightest twitch on her part would indicate defeat in a game she wasn't even fully aware that she was playing.

"Well," Aurora tilted her head slightly, and she spoke slowly and carefully, "I've heard you don't like to be uninvited."

A tiny smirk, which would be imperceptible from any distance further than that of the dinner table between them, graced Maleficent's lips, and her dark eyes seemed suddenly to sparkle. "Touché," she said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Sometimes you accidentally stay up way too late and write a chapter in one sitting. Hopefully it's not an absolute mess. Thank you so much for your support and feedback! I hope that you will continue to enjoy and to share your thoughts!

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Maleficent didn't see the first one coming.

She found it unsettling that she'd been caught so utterly off-guard, but she was preoccupied by the arrival of the soup (entitled Dragon Stew, though her heated discussion with the waitress had revealed that it did not contain actual dragon nor was it technically a stew), and Aurora was about to ask her a question. There'd been a faint glimmer in her violet-blue eyes, which indicated that the question might be interesting, or at the very least, controversial if posed by a princess, and hadn't Maleficent agreed to this mad excursion on the grounds that it would be interesting and controversial?

Then, suddenly, "Hey there, Dragon Lady."

Aurora stopped mid-sentence, mouth slightly agape, and Maleficent experienced something utterly foreign: her thought process _lurched_. She'd been single-mindedly involved in the situation before her, concentration unfettered by the usual multi-tasking, and whatever-this-was had _interrupted_ her.

The pause lasted no longer than an instant, of course, and Maleficent turned upon her intruder already seething with profound irritation.

Hades. Lord of the Underworld. Incidentally also Lord of Numerous Insufferable Attempts to win her favour. At least he wasn't bare-chested this time. She'd glared at him long enough to create an uncomfortable silence, and she could see him floundering for something to say.

"You, uh...busy?"

Maleficent raised her eyebrows, gestured to her dinner companion.

"Oh. Heh. Excuse me. Princess. Sleeping Beauty. The one, the only. Pardon me. Didn't mean to intrude. Maleficent, cupcake, if I could just have a moment of your—"

"Refer to me as a product of confectionery again, Hades, and I shall burn you to a crisp."

"Right. Yeah. Great. Sorry. Listen, I was just wondering—"

"Leave. Now." Under normal circumstances, she'd have sent him off with a nice bolt of lightning, but she was dining with a princess, and she rather imagined that violence at this stage in the evening would put a lamentable damper upon their conversation.

"He's so creepy," said Aurora quietly, after he'd slunk away.

Maleficent closed her eyes briefly. The image of Hades in nothing but red shorts was forever burned into her mind. "I daresay you've no idea."

"I mean, it's not that he's Lord of the Dead or whatever, he's just...I always feel like he's sizing me up or something, you know?"

"Hmm." This observation returned Maleficent's attention to the lovely young woman who sat across from her. That Maleficent should be the one among them who would spend the evening fending off unwanted attention struck her as almost comical. But Aurora was engaged, and everyone in the Magic Kingdom was well aware of it.

Maleficent hadn't made up her mind on the subject of whether she intended to ask after the current state of Aurora's engagement before Aurora spoke again. "It...sort of seems like that's happened before."

"Every time."

Aurora frowned. It was a delicate expression, and Maleficent found it difficult to imagine her face portraying real anger. "I suppose you could admire his persistence."

"I believe that when the object of one's advances is neither interested nor flattered, nor even amused, the arguably admirable quality of perseverance becomes the rather less favourable act of harassment."

"Oh," Aurora uttered. Her eyes went wide with the surprise of this revelation. "Well. I suppose that's right, isn't it?"

Her eyes were a vivid and slightly unusual colour, and they were very expressive. Maleficent could see that her comment had set one or more tangential trails of thought into motion. She took this as her opportunity to open up the subject that interested her. "I expect your famous engagement affords you some repose from the lechery of the common man."

As though a switch had been flipped, Aurora's eyes flashed, and she became suddenly very interested in her soup spoon. "Oh, that," she replied unhelpfully.

Maleficent waited patiently, hoping there would be an addendum. She used this time to contemplate her own soup, and why in Hell's name a person would see fit to call a generic beef-and-vegetable concoction Dragon Stew. Of all the imbecilic...

"I hadn't really thought about it," Aurora continued at long last. "It comes with its own unique flavour of harassment."

"How do you mean?"

Aurora stirred her soup thoughtfully. "'Why isn't Prince Philip with you,' 'when is the wedding,' and my personal favourite—" she pointed her spoon at Maleficent, who raised her eyebrows "—'when do you suppose you'll start thinking of having children?' Children!" Aurora dropped her spoon and covered her face.

"And I know in our world, I'd be at that age, getting a little old, even, and people started to whisper..." she looked up at Maleficent, eyes wide and glistening. "But now, here, we've got this new world of possibilities before us! Suddenly there are things all around me that I'd never even dreamed of even a year ago, and I want..." she paused, frowned, averted her eyes again. "I only want a chance to explore a bit, you know? Before I have to settle down and...and honour and obey and whatnot."

"Well, well! Good evening, Mistress Maleficent. What a pleasure to see you here. May I say that you are looking ravishing this eve—"

Without even thinking, Maleficent flicked her fingers, and a bolt of lightning served as her response to Captain Hook and his dreadful moustache.

She wouldn't have thought another thing of it, except that Aurora looked positively horrified. She was glancing back and forth between Maleficent and the rapidly retreating gentleman in a long red coat, as though she might be the next recipient of Maleficent's wrath.

Maleficent allowed herself a small sigh. They'd been having such a fascinating conversation before the captain had seen fit to insert himself into her awareness, and he'd ruined it all. Maleficent hadn't wanted to deal with him any longer than absolutely necessary, and in her haste, she'd completely forgotten her intention to postpone violent expulsion of unwanted suitors.

"I do beg your pardon, your Highness," she said drily. "I assure you he'll be quite all right." _Unfortunately_, she amended privately.

It took Aurora a moment to stop looking like a frightened animal, and when she did, her first question was relatively neutral. "Was that Captain Hook?"

"Indeed it was."

She looked over her shoulder in the direction he'd retreated. "I hope you won't think me rude for asking, but is it only ever..." she paused for an amount of time which was almost uncomfortable "...persons...of a villainous reputation...who try to earn your favour?"

Oddly enough, Maleficent was far more amused than irritated. "Generally I hold no appeal for those of a virtuous reputation," she said coolly.

Aurora turned back to look at her, and her eyes twinkled. "Perhaps they're deterred by the lightning," she offered.

"Hi there!"

Mickey Mouse was not precisely Maleficent's favourite person, but nor was he an insufferable blemish upon the face of her existence. His perkiness was far more than Maleficent was willing to tolerate on any more than a minute-by-minute basis, but he possessed an innate purity of intention which Maleficent did not observe in the vast majority of people. She could tolerate the self-proclaimed Good only so long as they were truly righteous, and not merely self-righteous.

"Good evening," she said.

"Hi, Mickey!" Aurora responded with equal, if subdued cheer.

"Gosh, I'm just so happy to see everybody making new friends!" he exclaimed.

And while Maleficent could see the usual signs of nervousness—the faint glisten of sweat, fidgeting hands, shifting weight—she knew he genuinely meant what he said, however insipid. She set out to say something moderately pleasant in response, but once again her train of thought was thrown suddenly and violently off its tracks.

Aurora's face lit up when she smiled, and the sight so ensnared Maleficent's attention that she forgot she meant to say anything at all.

"That makes at least two of us, Mickey," said Aurora.

"Ha ha! Well, I hope you enjoyed the soup! Sorry about the name, Maleficent." Hands in pockets, weight shift forward, back, hands out of pockets eyes darting left, right, left, but at least he didn't stutter when he spoke her name. "Donald thought it was funny, but I know you might not agree. Oops, that's my cue. Enjoy the show, folks!"

Maleficent watched him go, then, almost reluctantly, returned her attention to Aurora. Still smiling. Still radiant.

"That was very nice of him."

Still a princess. Still engaged.

"If there is one thing Mickey Mouse embodies, it is nice," Maleficent replied absently.

This could not end well.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Wow, life really has a way of getting away from you, doesn't it? But after many months of feeling a little stuck on this chapter, it finally fell into place. _A_ place, at least. Thank you all so much for your patience, your readership, and your feedback! I hope you will continue to enjoy and share your thoughts!

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The show was more or less the same every time Aurora saw it—all fun little song-and-dance numbers and corny jokes. There was something very comforting about its light-hearted nature. Aurora wasn't interested in thinking too deeply this evening. Perhaps she was afraid of what she might uncover.

"Oh, no."

"What's the matter?"

Aurora's instinctive response to the sight of her fiancé was perhaps not entirely logical. She took up her tea in both hands and endeavoured to angle her body away from the table where he'd just been situated. As though her hair were somehow less recognizable. "Oh, it's just...I'd rather not..." she gestured vaguely over her shoulder.

Maleficent took a sip of her water. "A valiant figure, straight and tall," she murmured, with a touch of humour which eluded her dinner companion.

Aurora wasn't certain why it hadn't crossed her mind before that Philip would be sitting with all of their friends. She supposed she'd avoided thinking about him very much since she'd asked for more time to herself. But even if Cindy noticed that Aurora obviously didn't want to be seen, Ariel was a bit too enthusiastic to pick up on subtle social cues like that.

As though in direct response to her thoughts, Ariel cried, "Aurora!" and hurried over to her side.

Aurora slowly and deliberately replaced her teacup, and did her best to reserve a reaction for whatever Ariel actually said. No use feeling nervous or defensive just yet. "Hi, Ariel," she said evenly, but her fingers grasped a fistful of the fabric of her skirt.

"I thought it was so odd when Philip said you weren't coming, you know, I mean everyone in the kingdom is here tonight, and why wouldn't—oh!" Ariel stopped, mid-wild gesticulation, as her eyes landed squarely upon Maleficent. Ariel clasped her hands and bowed her head. "Uhm. Hello. Your Excellency."

Maleficent inclined her head contemplatively. "Good evening, your Highness," she replied.

Not for the first time, Aurora wondered at the disparity between how she'd expected Maleficent to be and how she was, at least in the brief time they'd been legitimately acquainted.

"So," Ariel continued slowly, still mostly to her clasped hands. "I see that you are busy. I will...just...talk to you later, then."

Aurora rested her face in her left hand, and rather zealously stabbed a piece of chicken with the fork in her right hand.

"Oh, come now," said Maleficent lightly. "That was all but painless."

"It's not that," said Aurora miserably.

"I feel I should point out to you that if you were hoping to avoid a confrontation with your beloved prince, inviting me to dinner may not have been in the best interest of your ambitions."

Aurora let out a muffled groan. She didn't quite reappear from behind her hand, but she did readjust so that speaking was not entirely out of the question. "People annoy you sometimes, right?" she began.

Maleficent's first response was a small breath of amusement. "One might say that."

Aurora stabbed aimlessly at her food for another moment. She had to fight down the twisting sensation of embarrassment in her stomach before she could continue to speak. "Don't you ever, I don't know, just want to annoy them back?"

Maleficent was silent for a moment. Aurora took a very large bite, that she might avoid saying anything else embarrassing for awhile longer.

"You invited me to dinner to irritate your fiancé." It wasn't a question, and though her tone was itself that of irritation, there was a hint of something foreign in it, too. But that was absurd. It couldn't be...

Disappointment?

Aurora finally looked up, surprised. "Oh, no, not at all!" she said. "I'm just saying..." she averted her eyes, "it's...an added bonus. That I hadn't considered before just now. That's all."

"Hmm."

"You don't believe me?"

Maleficent quirked one eyebrow. "I believe I've yet to discover the full extent of your true motive," she replied. "People seldom do anything remotely interesting for one simple reason, after all."

With a kind of recklessness Aurora had only recently discovered in her heart, she met Maleficent's eyes and found herself asking, "Like cursing people to die?"

Maleficent did not flinch, or look away, or even indicate that she had any internal reaction whatsoever to Aurora's bold question. "Is that something you find interesting, princess?"

Aurora felt as though the boldness had been knocked out of her, and she stammered her response. "I...well...I mean...yes, I only..."

"Aurora?"

Aurora did not indulge in the use of foul language, but she privately felt that if there were ever a time for a nice, juicy expletive, it would be this moment. "Hello, Philip," she said to her plate.

In her peripheral vision, she could see Philip's unmistakable form—the stance of a confident prince—come into view as he planted himself firmly at the side of the table. "What's going on here?" he demanded.

Something about the childish edge to his voice caused Aurora enough irritation to look up. Philip was handsome, no doubt about that. Even all tensed up like this, even with his jaw sort of twitching and his bright eyes bulging, his features remained somehow open and welcoming, his eyes warm and inviting. Aurora had found his looks enchanting for a time, but now they only served to further her annoyance with him. She gestured to Maleficent with the prongs of her fork and replied drily, "I'm having dinner."

Philip's eyebrows knitted in some combination of confusion and hurt feelings. "I thought..."

"You thought what?" Aurora cut him off. "Aren't you also having dinner?"

Phillip glanced over his shoulder uncomfortably. Aurora had never spoken to him like this—she'd never spoken to anyone like this, honestly, and couldn't quite believe she was doing it now—and it had completely cowed him. Aurora felt strangely pleased by this realization.

"Aurora, can I speak with you?" Phillip muttered through almost clenched teeth. "Privately?"

Aurora tilted her head. "Why would you need privacy, Philip?" she wondered lightly.

Philip's sparkling eyes focused on Maleficent, then Aurora, and then back on Maleficent. Aurora shrugged a silent challenge. A part of her knew she was being rather unfair, but she couldn't reign herself in now. She was feeling practically giddy with power.

"Aurora," Philip spoke again, with a kind of painstaking slowness that made Aurora feel a bit like an errant child. "I don't want to embarrass you."

Aurora could tolerate a bit of condescension from her Aunt Flora—that was just the way she was, and after some hundreds of years, she was unlikely to turn over a new leaf. But from the man she was meant to marry? "Really?" she shot back. "Because at the moment you're embarrassing yourself."

Philip's eyes flashed with unmistakable hurt, and that small part of Aurora begging her to come to her senses felt very, very guilty, but she swallowed it down and held his gaze.

"Fine," said Philip crisply. "I didn't think you would be here tonight."

Aurora raised her eyebrows. "Well, I am."

"I thought you were taking time to yourself," he pressed.

"I am!"

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Are you telling me I shouldn't be here?"

"I am telling you that you're making a fool of yourself," Philip shot back. "And of me. Is that what you want?"

Aurora let out a cold, mirthless laugh. "Am I really? Explain to me how I'm making a fool of anyone."

"I thought you weren't coming! I told our friends—"

"You told our friends I wasn't coming?" Aurora cut him off. She felt herself growing red in the face and struggled to keep her composure. She wanted to yell at him, or shake him by the shoulders until he saw some sense.

"Yes! Because I thought you weren't!"

"Well that's not really your business to tell, is it, Philip?" Aurora cried.

Aurora could see Philip's hands clench into fists at his sides. "Aurora, why are you acting this way?"

"Is this how it's going to be for the rest of our lives, Philip?" she wondered icily. "I do something you don't like and you scold me as though I'm a child?"

"Aurora!" Philip flung up his hands in exasperation. "Everyone thinks you're on a date with someone else! With Maleficent, of all people! Is that what you want?" Something changed in his expression—something Aurora had never seen before, and something she never, ever wanted to see again. Suddenly kind, brave, foolhardy Philip looked almost...cruel. "Or did you have no idea what you were doing?"

On a date?

Aurora's gaze flickered to Maleficent for a fraction of a second, but she dug her fingernails into her leg and held her composure. If Philip were particularly perceptive or intuitive, she'd have given herself away in that instant. But in that instant, Aurora had seen that Maleficent's eyes sparkled with the discovery of new information while Philip's sudden and frightening cruelty remained stagnant...and somehow this made Aurora even angrier with him.

"Don't be ridiculous, Philip," said Aurora, as calmly as she could manage, though she felt as though her face and hands and heart were on fire. "I may have dinner with whomever I please. What everyone thinks of it is not my concern, and it certainly isn't yours."

Philip grew very red in the face, like something in a cartoon that might soon explode in a cloud of smoke. He made a few grunting noises that exacerbated this effect, then stormed away. The grace and poise with which he carried himself even as he acted the part of a fussy toddler were positively disgusting.

Aurora gave her chicken another aggressive stab with her fork. On a date. What an absurd child she had been promised to marry. What a jealous fool! On a date, indeed! Why, perhaps she shouldn't have been so calm about this at all! Perhaps she really should have given him a piece of her mind, right here—_stab!_— in front of the whole—_stab!_—kingdom!

No idea what she was doing! What an incredibly rude thing to say. As though Aurora had just stupidly blundered herself into a situation that could be perceived as a date. It was all on Philip for thinking she was on a date with someone else at all! They were engaged, were they not? Just because Aurora had asked for some time to herself didn't mean she was going around on dates, thank you very much!

And anyway, what would be so bad about going on a date with Maleficent, supposing Aurora were available for such an enterprise? Of all people, he'd said, like it was the world's worst insult. As if to say, _oh, go on a date with anyone else, fiancé, just not her!_ Why, Aurora could think of many, many more objectionable people to go on a date with than—

"Was the added bonus everything you'd hoped?"

Aurora's fork clattered against her plate, and she turned wide eyes upon her dinner companion, whose expression and position had not changed at all since Aurora had started taking out her aggression on her meal.

Maleficent had realized in one instant that of course Aurora hadn't meant for this to seem like a date, that she hadn't even considered the possibility, and judging by the fire in her dark eyes, likely several other truths besides. Maleficent had seen in the tiniest fraction of Aurora's body language volumes more than Philip ever managed to glean about his betrothed in their months of constant companionship.

Aurora was hit with a horrible realization, so sudden and so shocking that it very nearly brought tears to her eyes.

"Are you quite all right?"

"I'm...I...uh..."Aurora swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat and the ache in her chest only worsened.

It was absurd. Completely ridiculous. For so many reasons. Why, until a minute ago, the possibility hadn't even once occurred to Aurora! But now that it had, now that the idea, however completely insane, had been presented to her, Aurora found that she could not shake it.

Aurora wished that she _were_ on a date with Maleficent.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Everything in this world always seems to take a lot longer than I think it will or want it to, even absurd things like this. Thank you all so much for sticking with me! As usual, I have absolutely no excuse for what follows. I hope you will continue to enjoy and to share your thoughts!

* * *

The biting splash of cold water against Aurora's face brought her back from the brink of abject panic, at the very least. She'd been hiding in here for way too long already, but she couldn't even begin to think about going back just yet. She looked up into the bathroom mirror and thought about how seldom she had seen her reflection back in her homeland. Here, mirrors were everywhere. Aurora couldn't escape her face, and the way it changed, gradually, day by day, minute by minute, into something nearly unrecognizable to its owner.

She wondered idly how other people viewed her. People called her a rare beauty, but what beyond that? What did they really think of her story, the way events had unfolded around her without really having much to do with her personally? What did they think of her here in this new land, where she had estranged herself from her fiance and now apparently went gallivanting about with her would-be murderer?

The bathroom door opened, but Aurora could not bring herself to move. She stood with hands gripping the sides of the sink, staring right through her own visage.

"Aurora?"

Aurora squeezed her eyes closed. "Hi, Ariel."

"Are you all right?"

A breath of mirthless laughter escaped her lips. "I'm...honestly not sure," she said quietly.

Ariel hoisted herself up onto the bathroom counter next to Aurora and began to kick her feet idly. "I didn't know you and Philip were in a fight," she said. "I'm sorry if I made it worse somehow."

"No, you didn't," Aurora assured her, but she knew her tone was flat. She closed her eyes again and tried to think of what it was she wanted to say. "What do you think of me, Ariel?"

This question unsurprisingly caught Ariel off-guard, but she answered with little hesitancy. Aurora envied Ariel her ease in all manner of odd situations. "Well, I guess maybe I don't know you as well as some of the other girls yet," she said, "but we're friends, right? It seems like you've been through a lot..." she paused, bit her lip for a moment. "Sort of like a lot of people here. Why do you ask?"

Aurora ran her hands through her hair, idly fixed her bangs. "Just wondering if I seem like an awful person," she replied with faux-lightness.

Ariel's expressive eyes widened. "Why would you think that?"

"I just..." Aurora frowned. "I just don't know...if it's going to work...with Philip, I mean."

"Well, he saved you, didn't he?" Ariel interjected before Aurora could even think to continue. "He saved you with True Love's Kiss, and he fought a dragon for you! He fought...well, he fought Maleficent..."

"I know," Aurora replied. _Oh, do I ever know!_ "But is that...enough?" She opened her eyes, shook her head. "That's not what I mean. I don't mean..." She looked over at Ariel, who watched and waited, wide-eyed and expectant. "All that talk about the things Philip did for me just sort of makes me feel like...like less than a person. Like a prize to be won. And I wasn't even sure we'd be happy in our time together in my homeland, where I had no choice! But here...here, where everything is different and still changing, and I do have a choice..."

"You would choose Maleficent?" Ariel wondered, voice and eyes slightly terror-stricken at the mere notion.

Aurora's mouth hung open for a second or two. She struggled to deny what was by all accounts a wild accusation, except that it was perhaps just a tiny bit too close to accurate. "I...I don't know," she deflected rather unconvincingly. "Maybe."

Ariel frowned and looked away. "She did try to kill you, you know," she said, as coldly as was possible for one so warm and effusive. "I'm not trying to convince you she's pure evil, because it looks like you've already decided she's not, but... I don't think she probably sees anything in the world the way you do. The way any of us does."

Aurora turned away, too, only to be greeted by her own sorrowful reflection. "I know," she said. Then, further considered, added playfully, "You're telling me you don't think people from different words can get along?"

Ariel glanced up from under her unruly hair and offered Aurora an unsuccessful attempt to subdue a smile. "I was thinking more along the lines of different directions on the moral compass," she replied.

Aurora's attempt at good humour was easily dampened, and she let out another sigh. "I know exactly what you were thinking," she said. "And you're probably right. Anyway, I suppose I should get back to my dinner."

Ariel hopped off of the bathroom counter. "Well..." she began with a shrug and a hopeful smile, "good luck, I guess?"

_I'll need it_, Aurora thought ruefully.

* * *

Maleficent warded off the creeping feeling of what could best be described as awkwardness with a decisive stab of her knife. Granted, the pork was so tender it didn't need to be cut with a knife, but hell would freeze over before Maleficent admitted that anything about this establishment came close to meeting her standards.

She had the distinct sensation that everyone in the restaurant was staring at her in the absence of performers on the stage, and not in the usual terrified manner to which she was accustomed, but rather in the way one stares at a person who has been involved in a humiliating social faux pas...for example, the way King Stephan's subjects might have stared at him at Aurora's christening, had the lady he'd slighted not been considered a menace to society at large.

Maleficent's discomfort was somewhat mitigated by the familiar feeling of profound irritation as the lights dimmed once more, and the tone-deaf duck and his miscellaneous bird friends took the stage and began to squawk out their signature opening tune.

Aurora had excused herself more than ten minutes prior. Maleficent wondered whether she had perhaps climbed out the bathroom window and made a hasty retreat to the safe haven of her castle home to consider the foolishness of her actions. Maleficent wouldn't wait very much longer to find out. If Aurora had backed down from her stance of challenging the perceptions of society, then she had lost the privilege of Maleficent's company. Maleficent would not sit about, alone in this cesspool of annoying music and dreadful attempts at humour, to be leered at by villainous men and whispered about by the idle-minded.

How long had it been since Maleficent had been involved in any proceeding that even marginally resembled a date? It wasn't precisely a common practice among her people, but she'd been involved with...perhaps, briefly, deludedly considered herself enamoured of another wicked fairy for many years back in the Old World, and one might say they had gone on outings together. Walks, picnics, horseback riding (something the lady in question had been inexplicably fond of, but which Maleficent found perplexing as a practice for beings capable of near-instantaneous teleportation)...things that might have been considered romantic, might have been romantic at the time...but ultimately amounted to little. Maleficent had disappeared rather quickly when their relationship began toeing the line of seriousness, and now Maleficent was here and she was there, if there even existed anymore.

The singing poultry mercifully finished their set, and Mickey Mouse appeared to announce the next act. Twenty minutes and still no Aurora. Maleficent positioned the money for her meal beneath her teacup and stood to depart.

A dreadful feeling began churning in her stomach and welled up into her throat as she surveyed her options and found no escape but through the front door. She felt strangely dejected, almost sad, and abruptly when this descriptor came to mind, she set her face into its customary scowl, swallowed hard, and all but stormed past the receptionist, the hostess, and the doorman.

Fool! Idiot! Imbecile! They hadn't been on a date to begin with! The princess was engaged! To a man! And she was a princess! A date had never even been on the table, and what was more, Maleficent had never even considered the idea until it had been presented to her by a blundering buffoon of an outside source. Why, then, should she feel anything except relief that this absurd exercise in humouring a frivolous girl's stupid whims had drawn to a premature close?

"Going somewhere?"

Despite her dour mood, Maleficent knew better than to flinch whirl about to face whoever had addressed her, thereby betraying her surprise...or her guilt. She stopped and turned slowly, allowing herself a moment to relax her features into a facade of calmness. "Is that a concern of yours?" she wondered lightly before she had fully turned.

The identity of her pursuer did admittedly take her by surprise, and she offered a stiff nod of her head as she tacked on, "Your Highness?"

"It's none of my business, of course," said Princess Ella—more commonly called Cinderella, but Maleficent rather doubted that was her preferred name. "It's only that you seem to be leaving early...and perhaps unexpectedly." Bright blue eyes. A piercing gaze, in a way. A subtle tilt of the head, emphasis on the long, elegant neck.

Maleficent's lip curled reflexively. "And as you've just stated, that is none of your business."

Before she could turn away, however, Ella advanced a few steps—hesitant, quick steps; light on her feet. "Don't you think you might regret it? Leaving early?" Cautiousness in her voice, a hint of fear.

Maleficent raised one eyebrow. She said nothing, but nor could she bring herself to move.

"I don't mean to pry, but I couldn't help overhearing...I can see it's a difficult situation, and perhaps you want to avoid any further discomfort...for others or for yourself." Ella shrugged, another cautious, hesitant motion—not the careless throwaway gesture most employed—and presented Maleficent with a nervous half-smile. "But if you walk away," she said, "you'll never know what you missed."

Princess Ella all but turned and fled back into the House of Mouse, and Maleficent was left feeling perhaps even more foolish than she had a few moments prior, standing paralyzed outside this wretched establishment without any idea how she ought to proceed.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** As my writing often goes, half of this has been written forever. But good news! I'm trying to publish one piece of writing per day for the next month! Either here, on AO3, my original thing, on Tumblr, or some combination, so hopefully lots of updates to follow soon! Thank you so much for sticking around, and for your kind words! I hope that you will continue to enjoy, and to share your thoughts!

* * *

Aurora returned to her table to find Maleficent eating her pork with a precise and understated sort of viciousness which set her nerves on edge. How long had she been gone? Had something else come to pass, or was Maleficent upset with her? Maleficent might be cordial enough—far more so than Aurora would have expected, but there were too many rumours and too much hard evidence of Maleficent's devastating temper for it to be a complete fabrication.

"Sorry I took so long," said Aurora as she reclaimed her seat. "I just...needed to think."

"Hm."

Scarcely even a verbal response. Not a good sign at all. "Are you upset?" she dared. A stupid question, maybe, but Aurora didn't really have any better ideas on where to begin. She had just been contemplating the idea of them as two completely different people, with completely different views of the world. Surely the ways they wished to be comforted, or dealt with in their rage, must differ, as well.

"Upset," Maleficent echoed quietly, as if to herself. She ceased stabbing her food momentarily. "I suppose one might say I am, a bit." She frowned subtly, stabbed at her plate. "I'm certainly not at ease, in any event."

"Is it my fault?" Aurora asked her. "I mean...are you upset with me?"

This, at the very least, caused Maleficent to make eye contact. "No," she replied flatly, then returned her attention to her food. Aurora thought that would be all she intended to say until she added, almost as an afterthought, "although you did keep me waiting for some time. I thought perhaps you'd fled."

Aurora buried her face in her hands. "Oh," she breathed. "Oh, no, of course not!"

"On some level it would have been understandable;" Maleficent continued lightly, "however, I was left to endure this insipid spectacle with no favourable distraction."

"I'm really, sorry, it's just after what Philip said, and then I was just—" Aurora's mind went momentarily blank; her heart sputtered. "Favourable?"

Maleficent's lip curled and she kept her gaze steadfastly upon her food. "Don't flatter yourself—the bar is incredibly low."

Aurora bit the inside of her mouth in a vain attempt to subdue a small smile. "Why didn't you...I mean...thank you. For waiting for me."

"I did consider leaving," Maleficent said, guessing Aurora's thoughts as easily as though she'd spoken them aloud. "But if I had concluded the evening prematurely, that would have rendered the entire experience rather pointless, don't you think?"

"Suppose I had left?" Aurora dared.

Maleficent met her eyes evenly. "Then that would have been the evening's ultimate conclusion. If anyone were left with an unanswered question, it would have been you, not I."

Maleficent's eyes were black and somehow hard. Looking into them made Aurora nervous, for some reasons she could easily discern, and others she was not quite prepared to admit to. She felt one of a thousand unanswered questions as though caught in the back of her throat, or perhaps pressing upon her lungs—practically suffocating her in an effort to be heard, and yet overwhelming her with the uncertainties their answers might hold.

"Did you think this was a date?"

"No," Maleficent responded easily. "And your reaction indicated that the thought had not previously crossed your mind. Therefore, I should like to ask: why did the revelation trouble you so deeply that you felt compelled to sequester yourself for nearly half an hour?"

Aurora averted her eyes, balled her hands into fists in her skirt. What was she supposed to say? Any lie she told would likely be hurtful to Maleficent, or at the very least unflattering enough to cause her to withdraw her previous amiability, but what would follow if she dared to confess the truth?

Perhaps it would be easier, in a way, to just blurt out the truth in one go. There was a saying in this world that Aurora had recently learned through some rather unfortunate trial and error—rip it off like a Band-Aid. But Aurora had just received a great shock, and she felt slow to muster her courage. She poked at her fork and fiddled with it as she struggled to find the words...any words that might put her on a path to speaking her mind.

"It was just...surprising," she began lamely. "Not, I mean...you said yourself you could see I'd never even considered it. And I guess what was so surprising was how...completely...surprised I was?"

Aurora groaned and covered her face in her hands once more. She couldn't remember ever having done it so often before this evening. But Maleficent mercifully remained silent, and Aurora was afforded something rather rare: the time and space to contemplate her feelings in peace, without any outside interference.

"So, what I mean is, it had never even crossed my mind, so I had no idea how to feel about it—the concept, you know—until that moment, with all the tension with Philip and everyone in the room sort of staring, and then this emotion, this feeling just hit me in the stomach, and I wished—!"

She looked up abruptly, locked eyes with Maleficent, and her words caught in her throat. She felt almost like crying, like she might cry at any moment, like she would feel her heart breaking if Maleficent rejected her, and how absurd was that when she'd only felt this way for less than an hour!

With this revelation in mind, Aurora swallowed hard and tried to think—really think, with a clear head, about that first afternoon she'd spent in the woods with Philip. She'd been happy enough, charmed enough, interested enough in the first person aside from her aunties whom she'd ever met. Everything had been so much simpler then. The span of her entire world had been infinitely smaller. And although so much had transpired since then, she could say with some certainty that she'd never felt like this with regards to Philip. She couldn't imagine circumstances which would engender this feeling with regards to Philip.

Was this feeling...this near-anguish...to be desired?

"You wished?" Maleficent prompted her, after several minutes of silence.

Aurora looked at Maleficent—at her thin face with its dramatic beauty and her angular frame and her imposing headdress and her old-fashioned clothes—and she wondered what an idiot she must be to entertain this line of thought. Maleficent had agreed to come out with her as a curiosity. Probably to see just how many impossibly stupid things she could get Aurora to say. And what would be more pathetically stupid than to admit that for a brief, mad moment Aurora had wished that this were a date? That she had called up Maleficent, who had once very much intended to have her killed, or at the very least put into an eternal slumber, and asked her out on a date with some sort of romantic overtures, and then what?

Then they might awkwardly flounder about on a moonlight walk? Sing an old folk tune laced with weighty promises that no one could ever keep? Perhaps share a romantic waltz? A hesitant kiss?

Then what?

Aurora thought of her aunties' varying degrees of horror when she'd headed out the door. She thought of the worried looks from the people on the streets and the way Max and Daisy had acted as though Aurora were in danger. She thought of Mickey's strained attempt at friendliness, Ariel's strained attempt at acceptance, Philip's blustering hissy fit. She thought of how Maleficent must go through that sort of thing every day of her life, and how Aurora, herself, could hardly bear such treatment for one evening.

"I wished..." she lowered her head, ashamed of her cowardice. "I wished things could be different."

"Dessert!" the waitress announced with piercing and forcibly affected chipperness. Two pieces of chocolate cake were mercifully thrust between Maleficent and Aurora, awarding her enough distraction to hastily wipe away the hot tears that welled dangerously in the corners of her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Yayyyy, fast updates! Except they make me all angsty about how I feel about the chapter as a whole, but heyyy, fast updates! I hope that you will continue to enjoy, and to share your thoughts! Oh, and don't worry, this isn't the end!

* * *

_Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go._

They'd eaten their cake and sipped their coffee in relative silence. Aurora's eyes were trained firmly upon her plate, her face flushed and her violet eyes filled with unshed tears, and Maleficent, not wishing to disturb her any further, had receded into her own thoughts in an effort to sort through the new information she had just been offered.

_I wished things could be different_.

Maleficent despised wishy-washy deflections, and the last sentence Aurora had uttered was a prime example of such a linguistic atrocity. Things? Different? What was she supposed to do with that? Which things, and how? Maleficent wasn't just some run-of-the-mill mortal. A great many things could be different in innumerable ways if she willed them so.

Venturing into even murkier territory, perhaps Aurora was referring to variables of an emotional variety, in which case, if Maleficent were as wise as she liked to pretend, she ought to run as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. Such an imprecise phrase when applied to such an imprecise and distastefully messy enterprise as emotion-having was sure to cause nothing but trouble...and not the agreeable kind of trouble.

But Maleficent found herself faced with a piece of cake to eat and a cup of coffee to drink and a dinner companion she had already gone to great lengths to decide not to abandon, and therefore she found herself with an excess of time for needless suppositions.

_Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go._

The barbershop quartet closing for the evening was more or less agreeable, but something about the slow, lilting music felt ominously melancholy. The evening was coming to an end, but it still held countless unanswered questions. Would Maleficent, despite her best efforts to avoid such a circumstance, leave this curiosity she had agreed to entertain without any satisfying closure? Would she, indeed, leave with more uncertainty than that with which she'd begun?

I wished things could be different. She wished she didn't harbour romantic feelings for her oafish fiance, even though he had rightly made a spectacle of himself? She wished she...

This was a dangerous line of questioning—one Maleficent hesitated to entertain even in the privacy of her own mind. Her thoughts sputtered at the prospect that a person could even wish to pursue...to harbour...to entertain...romantic feelings...for her. She frowned instinctively and dug her fork decisively into her cake.

What would be the use in it? What good could possibly come of it? Supposing they made it to some sort of understanding regarding the possibility of the hypothetical existence of romantic overtures between them, as incredibly unlikely, as absurd as such a concept was, well, then, Aurora had already employed this phrase, this _I wish things could be different_. And that implied that in their current circumstances, in reality, where this sort of nonsense actually mattered in some small capacity, for some finite amount of time, 'things' in their current state were not agreeable. So it wouldn't matter, anyway.

_I hate to leave you, but I really must say,  
Good night, sweetheart, good night._

Aurora pushed the last bite of her cake around on her plate. The motion drew Maleficent's attention enough to bring her back into the present moment, at least partially, though not without the weighty burden of her contemplations on the matter of their outing and its potential as a failed date.

As she watched the piece of cake make its way across the plate to the left, then the right, then the front, then the back, then back to the right, a curious connection occurred to Maleficent: Aurora didn't want to leave just yet. Perhaps she, too, had unanswered questions.

_Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go._

"Would you care to take a walk?" Maleficent offered quietly, then, with a small hesitation, amended, "The streets of the Magic Kingdom aren't very crowded at night."

Aurora looked up slowly, eyes slightly obscured beneath the fringe of her hair, and nodded with a certain somberness unbefitting of her generally cheery and light-hearted demeanour. She finished the last piece of her cake, and they stood to depart before the barbershop quartet had finished its last phrase.

_Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go.  
I hate to leave you, but I really must say..._

The night air was chilly and eerily silent but for the faint din emanating from the House of Mouse. The skies were clear and full of stars, almost cartoonishly bright. Everything in the Magic Kingdom shared those traits: big, bright, shiny, almost too perfect, and Maleficent had quickly observed that its denizens liked it that way. They wanted their fairytales-come-true, their neat and pretty happy endings, their clean, cut-and-dry resolutions.

They wanted them so badly, they were willing to ignore imperfections, from the small and unimportant to the glaring and harmful.

"It's a curious place, this," said Maleficent to the night sky.

"Almost...too good to be true," said Aurora.

"My thoughts exactly," said Maleficent, more than a little surprised to be saying so.

"I wonder what happened to our world," said Aurora sadly. "Is it gone, completely? Left to fall to utter ruin? Could we ever go back?"

"Would you want to?" Maleficent wondered.

Aurora sighed heavily and pulled her shawl tightly about her shoulders. "I don't know. I don't know what I want at all. Everything is so strange and new."

"It's not a crime to be uncertain," said Maleficent. "This place..." she made a small, vague gesture to the artfully curved cobblestone sidewalk that lay before them. "It likes simplicity. Tradition. Happy stories with clear endings." She looked down at Aurora, who stared morosely up at the twinkling stars, lovely face illuminated by moonlight. "But there is much, much more to life than that."

Aurora looked up at her and offered her a small, melancholy smile, just as lovely as any other expression that graced her features. Maleficent's treacherous heart fluttered.

"You're much different than everyone thinks you are," said Aurora.

Maleficent sneered and turned her attention forward once more. "Don't go ruining my reputation with your nonsense suppositions," she replied, a fair bit less harshly than she had intended.

Aurora responded with a quiet breath of laughter, and Maleficent found that she could not even muster the slightest irritation in response to the sound. They walked together in silence for a moment.

"I'm glad you agreed to go out with me," said Aurora, then, catching herself, amended hastily, "I mean...you know...to dinner."

"I'm displeased to confess I've yet to fully grasp why you asked me," Maleficent replied.

"Maybe I'm not entirely sure, either," said Aurora quietly. "It's like...feeling lonely doesn't just...doesn't just go away when you're with another person. I mean, sometimes..." her voice broke, and she was silent for some time. "Sometimes people...make you feel lonelier than you ever felt by yourself," she said, but her voice was frail, like she might weep.

Maleficent extended a hesitant hand. She'd never had any talent for comfort. She imagined her persona, both innate and affected, lent themselves rather miserably to the practice. But her hand made its way almost awkwardly to Aurora's shoulder, and Aurora did not flinch or push her away, and so there it remained until Aurora rested her own hand atop it, and Maleficent felt her heart stutter unhelpfully.

"I'm sorry," Aurora murmured. "I didn't mean to say I asked you to come out with me just because I was lonely. I wanted to meet someone interesting. Someone different, you know, and even though we have sort of a...sort of a history, I don't know very much about you..." She sighed and dropped her hand, and they continued to walk along the moonlit path. "And maybe it felt good to do something I knew my family wouldn't like very much in the meantime," she amended, with a feeble attempt at lightness even as the conversation had so clearly grown weighty.

"I'm not sure I'd thought much past the initial phone call," Aurora added. "I didn't think for a second you'd say yes."

"Hm." Neither did Maleficent. What had been her motivation, exactly? It was true enough that this Magic Kingdom bored her out of her mind most of the time, and she'd been in dire need of a curiosity that would challenge her mind in some small way, but had that been her sole reasoning for acquiescence? Here was a thought worth examining: had she unintentionally lied when she'd said the possibility of this as a date had never for an instant crossed her mind?

"Tell me something, Aurora," she said slowly. "Now that we are no longer in immediate danger of interruption, what exactly did you wish could be different?"

Aurora stopped walking, and Maleficent followed suit. She inhaled deeply and looked up at the moon, lovely face tense from numerous attempts to hold back tears. "I wished..." she tried, her voice a mere whisper. "I wished..." plaintive. Almost a sob. Then, at last,

"I wished it were a date!" she cried, tremulous but forceful, up into the night sky. "Is that what you want to hear? I wished I weren't already engaged, I wished I were braver—brave enough to face all the scorn and ridicule you face every day, I wished someone like you might possibly want to be on a date with someone like me!" Aurora threw up her hands, then abruptly wilted an wrapped her arms tightly around her body.

"I guess I'm defective," she said quietly, voice hoarse from the force of the tears that now flowed freely down her cheeks. "A land full of happy endings and dreams come true, and it's not good enough for me." She wiped her eyes and covered her face with her hand. "Anyway, things aren't different, are they?" It wasn't a question. It was laced with defeat. She turned those big, expressive eyes upon Maleficent once more, and Maleficent was at a loss for words.

"Thank you for coming to dinner with me," said Aurora with a small, sad smile. "I know it probably wasn't very much fun for you, but..." she shrugged. "Well. It meant a lot to me, anyway." She got onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Maleficent's cheek. Maleficent's entire body froze in shock, and it took every ounce of self-restraint she had ever had not to lash out or flinch away.

And before Maleficent had fully pieced herself back together, Aurora was gone, rapidly disappearing into the night with nothing but the faint glimmer of her golden hair in the moonlight to indicate that she had ever been there to begin with.

Half-consciously, Maleficent touched her fingertips to the spot on her cheek where Aurora had pressed her lips. She made her way home on foot, for she knew in this moment she hadn't the presence of mind to transport herself entirely from one place to another. For one thing, she felt a kind of aching sadness beginning to tug at her heart. It felt so heavy in her chest, she had the sense that she was dragging it along with her when it would much prefer to stay rooted to that spot, that place in the world and that moment in time where Aurora had kissed her cheek.

Perhaps it would be better off staying there, Maleficent thought dully. That spot in time and space would surely never reoccur, and this, the evening's ultimate conclusion, was somehow the saddest ending of all.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** I actually feel pretty good about this chapter! Looks like this story will be wrapping up within the next chapter or two. Thank you all so much for your kind words, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy!

* * *

Gentle knocks at the door. Fauna.

"Rose?"

Aurora groaned into her pillow and turned her head only enough to utter, "Please just leave me alone."

"I know, dearie, it's just that your little friend Cindy is here..."

Aurora covered her head with her hands, as though they might shelter her from something. Her hair was greasy and matted. She hadn't showered in a few too many days. She'd barely been able to convince herself that leaving bed for things such as food was a worthwhile pursuit. She didn't really want glamourous Cindy seeing her this way, but on the other hand, she could really use someone to talk to who wasn't essentially a well-meaning, but eternally overbearing relative.

With another long groan, Aurora more or less rolled out of bed and onto the floor, where she located a pair of sweatpants (one thing she didn't mind at all about this world was that it was perfectly acceptable for a woman to wear trousers) and flailed around lethargically until she had dragged them onto her body. She somehow managed to achieve a vertical alignment and unlocked the door to her waiting aunt and her...well, her closest acquaintance, anyway, who was immaculately groomed as always.

"Hi, Aurora," said Cindy. She was always so quiet, so composed and reserved. Aurora often wondered what went on in the mind of someone so serene.

"Hey, Cindy..." Aurora's hand trailed uselessly through her hair, tugged at her sleep shirt, came back to rest ineffectually at her side. "Sorry I look like a mess."

Cindy smiled a little, shook her head. "No need to apologize to me for that," she said, with a touch of humour that was utterly lost on Aurora. "I wondered if you'd like to go out for a walk, maybe get a snack? I haven't seen you around lately."

Aurora found it curious how in this kingdom, even though there were several royal families to keep track of, everyone knew everyone's business even better than in her homeland. She didn't particularly feel like leaving her room, but she needed to do something, and talking to someone as intuitive as Cindy had always seemed to be might really help her work out the things that were keeping her down.

"I'd like that," she said, dismayed at how lethargic even this genuine response sounded. "But I should change. Give me a moment?" It wasn't so much that she cared what she looked like, but that it was, as Cindy had implied, difficult to go anywhere in the Magic Kingdom without running into someone you knew...and there were several someones Aurora did not want seeing her like this.

Cindy waited patiently while she hastily dressed herself and fixed her hair, then they ventured outside of the castle and into the warm afternoon light. They walked along the winding cobblestone paths for some time in silence before Cindy spoke.

"Happily ever after doesn't have to be perfect, you know," she said, quietly. "It's a tidy place to wrap up a story, but not a life."

Aurora could think of nothing to say. She focused her gaze on the pathway ahead of her and waited for Cindy to continue.

"Nearly all of us came to be here because our own lands were on the verge of destruction," she said, thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why everyone clings so fiercely to the past, even when it isn't useful to them any longer. But..." she turned icy blue eyes onto Aurora. "You don't have to live in what's past. You can choose to move forward."

Aurora felt numb and cold with a kind of panic that gripped her heart. The idea was so foreign to her, to everything she had been raised to believe about herself and the world, that it felt frightening and blasphemous to hear. "I don't know if I can," she breathed.

Cindy hesitated, then cast her eyes upon the road ahead once more. "Do you know much about me? My story, I mean."

Aurora thought for a moment. She felt as though she didn't know much about anyone, but she knew something of their stories, at least. "I know you were born a commoner, a maid to a wealthy family..." she began. "They treated you poorly, and they wouldn't allow you to go to a ball meant for all the people...but a fairy helped you go in secret, and you fell in love with the prince, but you had to run away...and the prince used your glass slipper to search the kingdom for you."

The details were fuzzy, and when Aurora had finished speaking, she realized that was very little to know about a person. How many people knew just as much or less about her? "That's not much, is it?" she amended sadly.

Cindy chuckled good-naturedly. "When my father died, it was my stepmother and stepsisters who began to treat me as a slave," she said, as pleasantly as though she were discussing the weather. "It was a terrible time, now that I look back on it with a clear mind, but at the time it was simply the way things were, and I accepted it. I did what I had to, and I dreamed of a day when things would be different..."

She was silent for a moment, but at last she continued, even more quietly than before. "When the prince found me, my whole life changed. It was beyond anything I ever could have imagined. I remember that my father loved me dearly, but he died when I was very young. After that, I didn't know what it was to be loved so well for...a very long time." She sighed sadly. "But would you believe I missed my home sometimes? Dreadful as it was, dreadful as my stepmother and stepsisters were...they were all I had ever known, and I missed them."

She fell silent once more, and Aurora struggled for something to say. The only life she'd known before learning of her true identity had been a very good one, full of love and happiness, and at the very least more freedom than she'd been afforded as a princess. She had no basis for comparison. "I...can't imagine what that must feel like for you," she said at last.

Cindy smiled up at the perfect blue sky, eyes shining with unshed tears. "For a long time, I thought there must be something wrong with me," she said. "The feeling worsened when I came here. I thought I must be broken. My life was a fairytale with a happy ending and I wasn't satisfied." She blinked back her tears and turned to face Aurora.

"But the story isn't my life," she said, with a kind of burning intensity that surprised Aurora. "And your story isn't yours. The tale everyone knows has come to an end, but you have to keep living your life." She placed her hands gently on Aurora's shoulders. "Make it a good one. Even if that means making choices other people won't like."

What struck Aurora as the most curious thing about Cindy's assertion was that it was more or less the same thing Maleficent had said to her nearly a week ago. Aurora smiled. "Thank you, Cindy," she said, and took Cindy's hands into her own. "I...really needed to hear that."

Cindy returned Aurora's smile and nodded once, then they continued to walk in silence. It was a beautiful day, and Aurora could hear a lot of chatter in the distance, but Cindy had somehow managed to lead them down a quiet path. Aurora still felt cold terror resting in the pit of her stomach at the prospect of what she knew she must do, but somehow hearing the words from someone who was a bit more like herself had cemented in her mind the necessity of action.

* * *

Phillip wasn't a difficult man to predict. She found him practicing his swordsmanship in the castle courtyard, mercifully alone, with only some terrifying straw dummies as his targets.

When he set his eyes upon her, he nearly dropped his sword. "Aurora!" he cried. "I...wasn't expecting you."

Aurora examined his features: the boyish handsomeness of his face that had once so charmed her, the warm brown of his eyes, the defined musculature beneath his clothes...but these were superficial things, and their appeal had quickly faded when Aurora had realized that not only did they have very little in common, but that the things they disagreed upon were not open for discussion.

"Phillip," she began, but whatever she'd meant to say next caught in her throat. She was afraid, to be certain, of the path she was choosing, but suddenly a dreadful sadness had overtaken her, and she began to weep for all that could never be.

They would never have a beautiful wedding with all their friends and loyal subjects, they'd never have children or grow old together. Their kingdom, that distant dream comprising the two kingdoms their marriage would have united, was no more. King Stefan and Queen Leah had both died of a terrible sickness during the dark times, and King Hubert had been too ill to make the trip to the Magic Kingdom—Phillip had to leave him behind to die alone. He'd made new friends easily, of course—far more easily than Aurora had—but Aurora was his only remaining tie to their world. She realized suddenly that perhaps the both of them had been clinging too long to the past.

Phillip, who did not deal in tears, looked panic-stricken and lost. He sheathed his sword and ambled forward to place his hands awkwardly on her arms. "Aurora, what's wrong?"

Aurora took one of his hands between both of hers and pressed a kiss against his knuckles. She looked up into his eyes and watched his expression twist as she pressed his ring into his palm and curled his fingers around it.

Phillip fell to his knees before her, but he said nothing, only held onto the ring and her hand and bowed his head in silent mourning.

Aurora reached down and smoothed Phillip's hair, and the look he gave her when he raised his head nearly broke her heart. "It isn't right for me to hold onto you any longer, Phillip," she said, shaking her head. "Our story has ended, but our lives have only just begun."

Phillip still clung to Aurora's hand like a lifeline. He kissed it once, again, again...then steeled his expression. "I shall always love you, my Sleeping Beauty."

Aurora allowed half a smile to tug at the corners of her mouth. Not unlike so many other people in this strange new land, all they really knew of one another were stories and legends and myths. Not very much to know about another person. She offered him a sweeping curtsey. "And I you, my handsome stranger."

* * *

In the topmost tower of the glorious castle at the center of the Magic Kingdom, a phone rang once...twice...a third time.

Hunched over a book she'd just ordered on ancient fire magic, Maleficent wondered why she hadn't 'accidentally' set the accursed contraption aflame by now.

The phone rang a fourth time, then a fifth.

Maleficent conjured a fireball in her left hand, admired it for a moment.

Six rings...seven rings...

Maleficent's heart fluttered unhelpfully, and she allowed her fireball to burn out. Whoever was calling was dreadfully persistent, or perhaps aware enough of Maleficent's distaste for the telephone not to be deterred by the waiting time. Something dreadfully similar to nervousness churned in the pit of her stomach, and this only fueled her ire for the offending device, and whoever might actually be on the other end if not for the only person she had any interest in speaking to.

On the ninth ring, Maleficent picked up the phone, took a moment to consider crushing it in her grip, and then snapped into the receiver, "Have you nothing better to do?"

"Nothing comes to mind," Aurora replied cheerfully, and Maleficent nearly dropped the phone.


End file.
